Review Summary: You gotta change with the times.
Those uninitiated with Pardoner might assume that a group of fuzzed-out indie rockers aren’t really the type to do very much introspection. It seemed that their MO from the outset, all the way back to their earliest releases, was to be a throwback to the 90s alternative sound and everything it didn’t stand for. It is referred to as “slacker rock” for a reason. But their latest release,
Peace Loving People, is another blunt push back against that presumption. Pardoner remind us that they do have something they’re fighting against: themselves.
“Yeah, right,” right? Perhaps you think I’m reading too deeply into this fun, seemingly-harmless indie rock album. And I’d forgive you for that if you haven’t already listened to the album before reading this. But to me, there is very little to debate as to what this album is trying to say. Listening to songs like “Deadbeat” and “Dreaming’s Free,” which are clearly about “selling out” in more ways than one, paints a picture that doesn’t really feel up to debate. The latter especially feels a bit too close to home, with our lead wondering if he lost a piece of his soul “playing that old type of rock and roll.” And the lyrics on “Love Yourself And Others” are just as pointed, with our bitter narrator calling out “little artists” and “little prophets” alike, saying that their “pretty pictures” probably won’t change the hearts of the embittered people of our divided modern world. Pardoner have never been ones to shy away from self-depreciation, but this album almost makes it seem like the band is questioning their place in that divided modern world. Are they just disposable music that will get tossed for the next thing?
I don’t want to paint
Peace Loving People as a depressing, self-obsessed bummer of an album, because it really isn’t. They do take on a broad and eclectic range of topics on this record, from as gun-obsessed crazies (“Cruel Gun”) and drug abuse (“Cherries,” “Short Song”), to something as innocuous as William Wegman (“Doberman”). And yet I find myself gravitating more towards the bitter, confused songs about disillusionment with music. I’m part of the problem, I’ll admit it.
There is a tendency among those who discuss and/or write about music to say that an artist has “matured” on later releases. Which is almost always a polite way of saying they’ve become a lot less interesting. But Pardoner has matured, in my eyes, the right way. On past releases, this band almost seemed mythical to me. Like a band plucked out of the 90s and sent to the present. I’ve said as much previously somewhere, I’m sure. But as they’ve continued on, their humanity has shown more and more through the thick irony this brand of deadpan noise rock tends to shield itself behind. So while this may not be their strongest record musically, it is definitely the one I could see getting talked about more. And whether that prospect’s a good or bad thing to you could probably predict how you’ll respond to an album like
Peace Loving People.
